Petition to ban cages - tell an MP what you think

[House of Commons]

Hi all, we wanted to draw your attention to a Parliamentary debate next week on farm animal welfare. We're offering you the chance to contribute your insights and experiences to the MP.

A petition to Parliament signed by 107,187 people calls for cages to be banned for all farm animals. On Monday 16 March, Kerry McCarthy MP will be leading a debate on this petition, and would like to hear your views as farmers:

• What impact would such a ban have on your business?
• Are existing laws and guidance on the welfare of farm animals appropriate for modern farming methods?
• Are existing laws and guidance sufficiently robust and easy to follow? Are they sufficiently enforced?
• How should farm animal welfare standards be enforced? Through legislation? Or financial incentives as proposed in the new Agriculture Bill? Or both?
• What else could the Government do to manage the welfare of farm animals?

Tell us about your experiences by midday Sunday 15 March. Kerry McCarthy MP may quote and refer to your contributions during the debate. Please include your first name if you’re keen to be quoted.

Read the petition and the Government’s response here.

We will post links to watch the debate and read the transcript as soon as these are available.

Please note: Your name, and any information or opinions you provide, may be shared with Kerry McCarthy MP and used in a Parliamentary debate which will be on the record and available on Parliament TV and Hansard. Please ensure that you are happy with your comment before sharing.

 

[JP1]

NB this includes farrowing crates

I ask to who's welfare are these measures addressing?

 

[teslacoils]

I'm not sure animals in zoos get to express their natural behaviour. Certainly domestic cats in blocks of flats don't. What the hey, let's ban cats for pets where they cannot roam outside, and zoos too.

 

[Dry Rot]

What's the definition of a cage?

 

[JP1]

What's the definition of a cage?

Very good question. You'd be surprised how wide certain NGO's want to make that definition

 

[multi power]

Other than hens I've never seen a farm animal in a cage

 

[Longlowdog]

Is a ewe with lambs in a pen in a pen or a cage?

 

[Longlowdog]

Will the points raised if they should become law become a legal requirement in the import of any product to the UK? If not then do you (the government) concede that the welfare status of imported meat is of no concern so long as it is 'out of sight, out of mind'?
Angus Millar. Aberdeenshire.

 

[smallholder99]

will non stun be on the agenda

 

[JP1]

Other than hens I've never seen a farm animal in a cage

That's why you need to understand how wide they want to spread the net: individual calf pens, farrowing crates even balconies in pig pens to expand available m2 were deemed to be "multitier" by our own home team initially

 

[farmideas]

Farmers have money invested in their stock, which provides a big incentive to look after the livestock and poultry well. Stressed animals don't do well. It is a small minority of farmers who mistreat their animals, and this can happen in the largest as well as the smallest farm businesses. Some rearing methods are banned in the UK and there needs to be uniformity across countries, but this doesn't even happen across Europe. Veal, pigs and poultry are reared to differeing standards, and the UK tends to have sticter rules than many. UK farmers should be proud.

 

[JP1]

All this at a time when many pundits commenting on the forthcoming trade talks saying it will be difficult to exclude imports from livestock kept in conditions that are illegal in the UK .........

 

[roscoe erf]

What's the definition of a cage?

agree how can we comment when the term cage is so vague or is it just the facebook generation jumping on yet another band wagon with little or no knowledge

 

[Dry Rot]

My thesaurus comes up with the alternatives of aviary, coop, corral, enclosure, pen, or pound. Cage sounds much more emotive. But perhaps they think all farm animals should have the right to roam? That could be interesting.

 

[House of Commons]

Thanks for your responses so far - and for querying the term "cage". The petition itself gives further details:

We, the undersigned, call on the Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs to bring forward legislation that amends the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 to prohibit the use of:

a) barren and enriched cages for farmed animals including cages for laying hens, rabbits, pullets, broiler breeders, layer breeders, quail, pheasants, partridges, guinea fowl;
b) farrowing crates for sows;
c) individual calf pens

 

[Nukemall]

Of course it's fine if you call it a crate and put a dog in it!! Muppets!!

 

[Longlowdog]

I note in Condition A that it states 'cages for farmed animals INCLUDING' but presumably not LIMITED to. How can such a vague condition be raised as a possible act of law. It is open to deliberate misinterpretation by anyone with an anti-farming agenda or mischief on their mind.
Further more anyone keeping chickens in a pen, pheasants in an outdoor laying pen, rabbits in a hutch could fall foul of such misconceived wording and inadvertently become criminals. I feel this issue has been raised by people with far more than issues of animal welfare in a farmed environment in mind given the impact on the shooting community and anyone who elects to breed (farm) animals on any scale.
Animal welfare is of paramount importance to all farmers. Poorly treated livestock does not thrive and ill-thriven animals cost more than the meagre margins farmers are currently making. The livestock industry already has law, regulations imposed by buyers and industry best practices to follow to create good husbandry and profitability. Enacting such law as to allow mischief makers to affect their aims is poor governance and if such laws should be passed in good faith failing to ensure these conditions apply to all goods entering the country is to deny that animal welfare is truly uppermost in the minds of those who govern if they are not prepared to upset their neighbours or trading partners to ensure animal husbandry is the same for home grown produce and that coming from abroad.
Angus Millar, Aberdeenshire.

 

[House of Commons]

Will the points raised if they should become law become a legal requirement in the import of any product to the UK? If not then do you (the government) concede that the welfare status of imported meat is of no concern so long as it is 'out of sight, out of mind'?
Angus Millar. Aberdeenshire.

Hi @Longlowdog, thanks for your question.

Petition debates are general debates about the issues raised by the petition. This means that the debates cannot directly change the law or result in a vote to implement the request of the petition. Petitions can however influence the Government to change their policies or the law. In recent years, petitions have contributed to the Government increasing funding for brain tumour research and issuing new guidance for employers on workplace dress codes, for example.

When a petition is debated, MPs can discuss the petition, ask questions about the Government's position on the issue, or press the Government to take action. A Government minister takes part in the debate and answers the points raised. More information is available on the How petitions work page.

 

[JP1]

Thanks for your responses so far - and for querying the term "cage". The petition itself gives further details:

Calf dehorning crates?

Lamb adopter ewe yokes?

Robotic milking enclosures?

 

[JP1]

Thanks for your responses so far - and for querying the term "cage". The petition itself gives further details:

I have to ask why are you even debating this when everyone knows the UK is already at a disadvantage compared with farming practices elsewhere that can legally ship food to the UK consumer now and will also be "compromised" in forthcoming trade negotations.

Perhaps Hansard can tell us just how much debating time has ever been expended debating why when UK sows unilaterally dispensed with dry sow confinement and then much later became EU law that many EU states still have sows kept in these systems?